This invention relates to an improved sight pin using a light gathering fiber for use with a bow.
Before the advent of sight pins, archers sighted bows by aligning the tip of the arrow with a reference point correlated with the target. Modern archery utilizes multiple sight pins mounted to the bow with each sight pin being correlated with a particular range to a target. The sight pins include colored sight beads for easy viewing by the archer. Thus sight beads permit an archer to vary the aim in range to the target by virtue of the archer placing an appropriate sight bead on the target.
Several problems have been encountered in using conventional sight pins. Since sight pins extend outward from a sight pin holder, they can be easily broken when the bow is pulled through brush and undergrowth. An unyielding branch places considerable force on a sight pin when the branch becomes enmeshed in this portion of a bow. In hunting situations, an offending branch can easily snap a sight pin off just before an archer may want to use his bow. It is a major concern for a hunter to carry an appropriate number of spare sight pins.
In low light conditions it is difficult for an archer to simultaneously see both the sight bead and a target. Eye focus of the archer is generally on the target which makes the sight bead look like a blurry point in the archer's near vision. Under these low light conditions, the archer may not even be able to see a conventional sight bead as he aims his arrow. Several patents have addressed this problem by having illuminated sight beads, for instance see U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,324, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,071, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,572. These patents all illustrate sight beads that glow in some manner by using a battery to force the "glowing".
U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,124 illustrates a technique for illuminating a sight bead without using a battery. Light is gathered by using a large diameter light collecting plastic member to gather incident light falling on the large area of the light collecting member. This large light collecting member is then tapered down to the small size of the sight bead so that a substantial portion of all the gathered light can exit with an increased intensity through the small area of the sight bead.
Other references utilizing light collecting members including fiber optic members to illuminate a sight bead are U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,861, U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,765, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,394. The fiber optic strand in U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,861 is held in a tubular sleeve which in turn is mounted to a bow. In this sight, a lens is provided at the sight bead end of the fiber optic element. The fiber optic strand in U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,765 is fed by a plastic light collector and the fiber optic strand in U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,394 collects light due to the long length of fiber optic material extending away from the sight pin.
From the above it can be seen that what is needed in a fiber optic sight pin and bead that is easily replaced when broken, is small for easy storage and handling, has structural integrity so as not to be broken easily, and collects light in a much more compact volume than heretofore known.